ABSTRACT

This paper considers the subjectivation of students in light of the increasing amounts of digital data that are now being produced within schools. Taking a lead from critical data studies and the sociology of numbers, the paper draws on staff interviews in three Australian secondary schools to explore the various types of student data being generated, and the forms of student subjectivities that result. In particular, the paper contrasts the ‘holistic’ possibilities that some school leaders and administrators ascribe to data in terms of expanding the capacity to ‘know’ students, against the limited ways that data is actually being used within the schools. Most notably, the paper details how digital data appears to be configured within schools’ official data procedures and practices to build student subjectivities and position students in narrow terms of performance and attendance. The paper also highlights how teachers make practical use of these limited data ‘profiles’ in a relational manner – as a way of stimulating dialogue with students to know them better, rather than a source of precise calculation. In this sense, the paper considers how ‘data’ might be reframed in educational discourse as a practical starting-point for teacher inquiry and professional judgment rather than an imagined source of all-encompassing knowledge.

摘要

鉴于现在学校内产生的数字数据数量不断增加，本文考虑了学生的主观化。该论文以批判性数据研究和数字社会学为主导，通过对三所澳大利亚中学的教职员工访谈来探索正在生成的各种类型的学生数据，以及由此产生的学生主体性的形式。特别是，该论文将一些学校领导和管理人员在扩大“了解”学生的能力方面归因于数据的“整体”可能性与学校内实际使用数据的有限方式进行了对比。最为显着地，该论文详细介绍了如何在学校的官方数据程序和实践中配置数字数据，以建立学生的主体性并在狭隘的表现和出勤率方面定位学生。该论文还强调了教师如何以一种相关的方式实际使用这些有限的数据“概况”——作为一种激发与学生对话以更好地了解他们的方式，而不是一种精确计算的来源。从这个意义上说，本文考虑了如何在教育话语中将“数据”重新构建为教师探究和专业判断的实际起点，而不是想象中的包罗万象的知识来源。该论文还强调了教师如何以一种相关的方式实际使用这些有限的数据“概况”——作为一种激发与学生对话以更好地了解他们的方式，而不是一种精确计算的来源。从这个意义上说，本文考虑了如何在教育话语中将“数据”重新构建为教师探究和专业判断的实际起点，而不是想象中的包罗万象的知识来源。该论文还强调了教师如何以一种相关的方式实际使用这些有限的数据“概况”——作为一种激发与学生对话以更好地了解他们的方式，而不是一种精确计算的来源。从这个意义上说，本文考虑了如何在教育话语中将“数据”重新构建为教师探究和专业判断的实际起点，而不是想象中的包罗万象的知识来源。